Five Behaviors that Spur Creative Thinking

By David Clark, New Business Development Manager, the Malco Design & Deliver Group

"Genius is one percent inspiration, ninety-nine percent perspiration." – Thomas Alva Edison, Harper's Monthly (September 1932)

Creativity lies at the center of new product development. If new products are the lifeblood of continued growth, new and good ideas are the hearts that pumps it. Successful new product development can be achieved if you have a solid creative foundation. Here are five behaviors to help:

1. Define your parameters. Great ideas don't occur in a vacuum. Defining clear limits within which you're focusing -- such as a specific tool use scenario -- allows you to narrow down your search, and simplify your creative process.

2. Seek outside inspiration. Keep an eye on what is going on in other industries, other technologies, other countries, and even unrelated activities such as a soccer game. Creative sparks can come from anywhere. Look for ideas that you can build upon it, or adapt to your needs. Seeking inspiration is not the same as outright copying.

3. Set time aside. While it may be true that your best ideas hatch in the shower, in the car, or in airport, it's also true that epiphanies are a direct result of previous effort. By dedicating strict creativity time on the calendar, you can ensure there's time for the effort to accumulate, and the ideas to percolate.

Thomas Edison's first successful light bulb model, used in public demonstration at Menlo Park, December 1879.

4. Let your idea breathe. Creativity can be fragile. Giving ideas the room to breathe, as well as the time to grow, is always preferable to squelching them with undue pressure for immediate results. Allowing time for ideas to gestate is essential.

5. Be persistent. When questioned about his failure to produce a working lightbulb, Thomas Edison said "I have not failed 1000 times, I have successfully discovered 1000 ways to NOT make a light bulb." That really says it all when it comes to persistence, and highlights the importance of patience as it applies to new product development.